By Nick Morrison

We have just “joined up” to the Orkney grown initiative to supply fresh milk refill from Crantit Dairy to islanders.

How it works is that you buy the special wide mouthed bottle, the wide mouth makes for easier cleaning. Clean it when empty and take it back for refilling. “2 grades of milk are currently on offer, full fat and semi skimmed.

This “wins” on several levels:-

We now have access to one of the shortest commercially available cow to customer times in the British Isles.

It reduces CO2 emissions by eliminating the need to transport milk in cartons or plastic bottles from the Scottish mainland.

It also eliminates the CO2 involved in the production of those cartons and plastic bottles.

The money we spend for our milk now goes to Orkney farmers.

It solves the issue of finding an environmentally sound method of disposing of the used cartons since OIC stopped accepting them at their tips.

The shops that I know of which currently offer this service: Shearers in Kirkwall, Argo’s Bakery in Stromness, Doulls in the Hope, The Dounby Butcher in Dounby and Baikies/Rendals of Finstown.

I would be interested if readers know of other shops in Orkney offering this method of milk delivery.